The invention relates to an instrument handgrip with a built-in light.
The prior art embraces handgrips for dental surgery instruments, marketed recently with the end in view of improving operating and hygiene conditions for the dentist and of ensuring that delicate operations can be effected with less risk to the patient; such holders incorporate their own light source and thus dispense with the need for continual repositioning of overhead lamps during sessions of treatment.
Holders of the type are embodied with a cavity that accommodates a small electric lamp, and incorporate optic fibres that extend from the lamp and shed its light over the treatment area.
The problem encountered with such handgrips is that particularly small lamps must be utilized in order to keep the diametral dimensions compact; also, electric lamps of this size have a relatively short life in view of the output demanded of them, with the result that frequent replacement tends to become necessary.
In a first type of embodiment, the handgrip is split into two discrete sections, one of which fixed permanently to the power supply cable; the remaining section is fastened to and removable from the first, and carries an implement at its projecting end; the electric lamp is accommodated in an axial position by the fixed section, and the removable section is fitted with optic fibres that depart from the center of the end offered to the fixed section.
This type of handgrip enables the electric lamp to be replaced quickly and without difficulty, but is beset by a not insignificant drawback, that is, the lamp remains fully exposed when the sections are separated, and can therefore break somewhat easily.
In a second type of embodiment, similarly split into two sections, one fixed and one removable, the lamp is fitted to the removable section and wired to the fixed section by way of a pair of sliding contacts; in this second embodiment, the removable section is provided with a slot that permits of withdrawing a cover from the recess in which the lamp is housed.
The lamp is better protected here than in the first type mentioned, though hygiene is compromised by the presence of the slot, and moreover, removal of the electric lamp is rendered somewhat difficult both by its own fragility and by the compactness of the handgrip as a whole.
Accordingly, the object of the invention is that of structuring a handgrip of the type in question, that will remain free of the drawbacks mentioned above.